Bringing the World into your Kitchen

How to “repulgue” an empanada

“You just might do it wrong,” said the little squeaky voice inside my head.

I looked up from the Empanadas recipe and frowned.

“I’ve made little filled pastries before.” I replied, “Just cut circles, fill with meat, fold in half, and seal the edges with a fork. Easy!”

“There’s probably a proper way to make empanadas,” said the voice, a little louder. “You should find out, before you make a fool out of yourself.”

The voice inside my head became louder still, chattering on until I admitted defeat. The voice was right – I needed to find out once and for all.

Fast forward through several google searches and YouTube videos (seeing as my cookbook was no help in this area).

Wouldn’t you know, there actually IS a proper way to shape empanadas and it does NOT include sealing the edges with a fork. The method is to “repulgue,” or roll the edges to make the appearance of a two strand braid.

As fate would have it, an Argentinian blogger living in Paris just happened to blog about this very technique 12 days ago! Huzzah! That’s what I call good fortune

yeah, they’re tough to find, it seems like they only carry them for a while…then they dissapear for a while. so sad perhaps one of these days i’ll be daring and make some and send some your way…since steve also suffers from picky eaters disease and doesnt like them (complete blasphemy i say!!!)

Video tutorials don’t seem to teach as well as in person… I wish I had a MIL who could show me how. Unfortunately mine doesn’t know the first thing about empanadas. Although she does make a pretty mean turkey.